The Gloves Are Off

Photographer Delilah Montoya spent a year documenting the lives of professional female boxers  including Denvers own Teri Lil Loca Cruz  for the book Women Boxers: The New Warriors, portions of which are featured in Su Mirada/Her Gaze, the current exhibition at the Museo de las Américas, 861 Santa Fe Drive. For tonights Momento Interactivo, at 6:30 p.m., Cruz will be on hand to share her story and supplement Montoyas stark images with a live boxing demonstration.

When I started this project, the biggest question in my mind was Why do these women want to do this? says Montoya. I got an answer, and it wasnt the answer I had anticipated. What I found, quite simply: Women boxers box because they have a desire for combat sport, and they go against the grain of so many things in order to participate in it. Their parents dont want them to do this, the people near and dear to them are horrified by it, but still this desire is there. Teris situation was different: Her father was a boxer, her brothers were boxers, and she grew up in it. Shes a mother of three, and when I asked if shed support her children if they wanted to box, she responded, Yeah, Ill work their corner.

Tonights event begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Museo, 861 Santa Fe Drive. For more information, go to www.museo.org.
For a longer interview with Delilah Montoya, go to showandtelldenver.com.
Thu., April 21, 6:30-8 p.m., 2011

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